AP Psychology · Unit 4
AP Psychology Unit 4: Social Psychology and Personality Terms
Social Psychology and Personality is the unit students find easiest to read and hardest to score, because the terms sound like ordinary language until a question forces a precise distinction.
Every term below comes with a situation. Learn the situation and the label follows.
Study tip
For each social term, write down a moment from your own week that fits it. Personal examples are far harder to forget than textbook ones.
20 terms, defined
Fundamental attribution error
Overestimating personality and underestimating the situation when explaining someone else's behavior.
Example: Assuming the driver who cut you off is rude, rather than rushing to an emergency.
Self-serving bias
Crediting our successes to ourselves and blaming our failures on circumstances.
Example: 'I aced it because I'm good at this' versus 'I failed because the test was unfair.'
Cognitive dissonance
The discomfort of holding conflicting beliefs or acting against a belief, which pushes us to change one of them.
Example: Deciding a job you settled for was 'what you wanted anyway.'
Conformity
Adjusting behavior or thinking to match a group standard.
Example: Going quiet in a meeting once you notice nobody else is objecting.
Obedience
Following the direct instruction of a perceived authority figure.
Example: Continuing a task you're uncomfortable with because someone in charge said to keep going.
Normative social influence
Going along with a group to be liked or accepted, not because you believe they're right.
Example: Laughing at a joke you didn't find funny.
Informational social influence
Going along with a group because you believe they have better information.
Example: Following the crowd toward an exit you can't see during a fire alarm.
Groupthink
A group prioritizing harmony and agreement over realistic evaluation of options.
Example: A team approving a plan nobody privately believes in because nobody wants to break consensus.
Social facilitation
Performing better on simple or well-practiced tasks when other people are watching.
Example: Running your fastest mile at a race rather than alone on a track.
Social loafing
Putting in less effort when working in a group than when working alone.
Example: The group project member whose contribution arrives at 11:58 p.m.
Bystander effect
Being less likely to help when other people are present, as responsibility feels shared.
Example: A crowded street where everyone assumes someone else has already called for help.
In-group bias
Favoring the group you belong to over groups you don't.
Example: Rating your own school's students as friendlier without any evidence.
Stereotype
A generalized belief about the characteristics of members of a group.
Example: Assuming an engineering student must be bad at writing.
Prejudice
An unjustified attitude — usually negative — toward a group and its members.
Example: Disliking a candidate before hearing anything they've said.
Trait
A relatively stable pattern of behavior, thought, or emotion that describes a person.
Example: Being consistently punctual across jobs, classes, and friendships.
Big Five
The five broad personality dimensions used in most modern research: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Example: Describing someone as high in conscientiousness rather than simply 'organized.'
Self-efficacy
Your belief in your own ability to succeed at a specific task.
Example: Feeling confident about a chemistry exam but not a public speech.
Locus of control
Whether you believe outcomes come mostly from your own actions (internal) or from outside forces (external).
Example: 'I didn't study enough' versus 'that professor grades unfairly.'
Reciprocal determinism
Bandura's idea that behavior, personal factors, and environment continuously influence one another.
Example: A shy person choosing quiet settings, which then reinforces the shyness.
Defense mechanism
In psychoanalytic theory, an unconscious strategy for reducing anxiety.
Example: Insisting you 'never wanted the position anyway' after being turned down.
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Unit 3
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